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Wednesday, July 09, 2008

The Korean is sure the expat friends of this blog would enjoy this article. (Article in Korean.)

Translation below:

Seoul Immigration Office of the Ministry of Justice stated on the 9th that six Middle Eastern illegal immigrants, who pretended to be Americans and Canadians and taught English to children, were arrested and would be deported.

MoJ explained that the arrested, who are from Iran, Morocco, and Libya, had such poor English skill that they could not even distinguish between "June" and "July", and did not have a teaching license. However, they used the fact that they appeared similar to Anglo-American white people that Koreans prefer.

Concerned that they would be discovered as a fraud if they taught middle school or high school students, they only taught kindergarteners or early elementary schoolers.

I find this really interesting. I wanted to teach in Korea (still do), and even though ostensibly I have a mostly American (with a hint of a British) accent, I won't be touched with a 10 ft pole cos i'm west african. Which is all sorts of disappointment rolled in one.

They only look European because they ARE. At least the African ones. European colonists moved to Morocco and especially Libya in the twentieth century. What I wonder is how they could get along even teaching five- or six-year-old children. If they don't know the difference between June and July, how could they tell the difference between yellow and green? Or five and nine? what could they possibly be teaching or pretending to teach?

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About TK

The Korean is a Korean American living in Washington D.C. / Northern Virginia. He lived in Seoul until he was 16, then moved to Los Angeles area. The Korean refers to himself in the third person because he thinks it sounds cool.